Left on the Wrong Side of Sexuality
by MissingMyMind
Summary: Haru Kuro, a Saint Blossom student coincidently meets everyone's favorite gay doctor. Personalities collide, plans are schemed, and no one can get what the heck happened to Umeda. I enjoy torturing my characters way to much… UmedaXOC. R & R please!
1. The Secret Is Known Again!

**Left on the Wrong Side of Sexuality**

**FallenOtaku**

Author's Note: UPDATE! I am back! And I'm actually planning on finishing this this time! I'm just going over the old stuff her again to fix up any mistakes in spelling or plot holes and such. But anywho, here ya go! :)

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, due to unforeseen complications, I was not able to illegally steal Hana Kimi under the cover of darkness and therefore do not own it... as much as I want to that is... but I do own Haru and her family.

Oh, by the way, this story is somewhere at the end of the series... not sure where, but wherever you want it to go I guess.

**Chapter One: The Secret is Known (Again!)**

You know what I hate about all girls schools? The fact that most of the girls are prissy, rich bitches that look down at the rest of the students who aren't in their social "class", or are the least bit different, like me. I was born the youngest with three older brothers, so can you blame me for being somewhat of a tomboy? Apparently _they_ can. However, not all the girls are like that. I do have friends, one in particular, Rio Umeda: one of the friendliest, happiest people I know. I've known her since I started school in Saint Blossom High School two years ago. We have become good friends in that time, although she is leery on telling me anything about her family. Oh well. Anyway, enough of my rambling.

This is my story.

Haru sighed as she glanced down at her watch for the zillionth time the in last ten minutes.

'_No matter how many times you look down at your watch, Haru, it isn't going to make time speed up. You're early for once, Rio's not here yet, deal with it!'_ she thought, looking down at her watch again.

The one and only reason she was here at the train station plaza waiting for the clock to reach it's ten 'o clock mark, instead of sleeping in, as was customary for a Sunday, was that Rio had a friend she wanted them to have lunch with. Haru tucked a strand of her black, slightly longer than shoulder length hair behind her ear and stared at her watch, mentally willing it to sporadically change to ten. She made a face at her watch and sighed, deciding it wasn't worth the effort to be early if she had to wait like this. She leaned back against the fence she was standing beside and shoved her hands into the pocket of her ratty old blue hoodie.

"Haru!" called a voice from across the plaza. She looked up to see Rio waving at her with someone in tow. Haru met them half-way and Rio began her introduction between her two friends.

"Haru, this is Ashiya Mizuki, the guy I was telling you about," she said, pointing to the boy standing beside her. He was thin, like a girl and was very cute, or that's what Haru thought, he also appeared to be around their age, "Mizuki, this is Kuro Haru. She's my best friend at St. Blossom."

"Yo," Haru said, raising her hand in greeting.

"Um, hello," Mizuki replied with a shy smile.

"Shall we eat?" Rio asked both of them, waving her hand in the direction of a well known coffee shop.

"Please," Haru said with emphasis, "I skipped out on breakfast so that I could get here to meet you on time."

Rio leaned over to Mizuki as they followed Haru to the cafe, and whispered behind her hand, "Haru's a bit growly in the morning before she gets some food in her system. She's better to deal with after we eat." Ashiya nodded in understanding as her eyes twinkled with amusement.

"Don't worry," she whispered back "Sano's the same way in the morning. I'm sure I can handle it."

"Quit dawdling," Haru called back to them from the cafe door, waving her arms in the air, "I wanna eat!" Giggling Rio rolled her eyes and followed her into the cafe.

"Ahhh! That hit the spot," Haru nearly purred as she set her fork down on her plate. She lazily looked over to Mizuki. "So Ashiya, I've heard you're from America. Why come to Japan for school?"

Rio grinned and looked to Mizuki, "see, I told you she was much more manageable after she has some food in her gut." Haru gave Rio the finger and continued to focus on Mizuki, waiting for the answer.

"Well, I came here to go to school with a guy I admire," Ashiya told her truthfully.

"Wow," Haru commented thoughtfully, "I can see why you would want to meet the person you admire, but to come all the way from America? Are you in love with this person or something?"

"Oh no!" Mizuki denied hastily, "It's nothing like that!" _'Dammit! She hit the nail on the head!'_ she thought in panic.

"Uh huh," Haru remained unconvinced. Rio looked back and forth between the two in amusement at their conversation.

"Whatever," Haru said, waving her hand in indifference, "it's your life, not mine and it's none of my business."

They packed up their stuff, paid the bill and spent the rest of the day walking around the city. Finally, as the sun dipped low in the sky and street lights were beginning to flicker to life, Rio and Haru bid Mizuki farewell and began their walk home.

"So what do you think of Mizuki?" Rio asked Haru as they walked down the sidewalk. Haru shrugged.

"She's nice, clever and totally in love with this guy Sano, who she keeps talking about, and I now assume is the high jumper Sano Izumi," Haru answered, watching Rio out of the corner of her eye to see her reaction to what she just said.

She faltered a moment in panic thinking, _'Wha? How does she know? I was careful to keep Mizuki's identity a secret. Did I slip up at some point?'_

"Quit panicking," Haru told her, "You never missed a beat. I was just able to figure it out, it really wasn't that hard anyway. What I'd like to know is how it is that she has managed to keep her secret this long?" Rio stared after her dumbfounded, as Haru continued walking down the sidewalk, swinging her arms, and talking to herself. She suddenly realized how far behind she was and ran to catch up to Haru.

"How did you know Mizuki was a girl?" she questioned, now over her panic and shock at the situation.

"Simple," Haru replied, her face neutral, "I've cross dressed as a guy quite a few times before."

"Bwah!" was the only response Rio could muster, "but why would you do something like that?"

"Once again, another simple question. I was tired of being treated like dirt because I acted like a guy, so when I moved to this area at about the time I was in Grade five; I dressed and acted like a guy, so everyone just assumed that I was one." Haru stuck her hands in the pocket of her hoodie and shrugged. Rio shook her head.

"I don't think I'll ever truly understand you, Haru," she sighed.

Haru grinned, "Well, that's the plan." They stopped at an intersection that they would have to split up at to return home.

"I'll see you tomorrow at school, kay?" Rio said to Haru. She nodded and waved over her shoulder as she walked away.

"I'm home," Haru called out when she entered the house she shared with her mother, father, and three brothers.

"Hey sis," her eldest brother greeted, sticking his head out of the family computer room. At twenty-seven, he was a computer programmer, and rarely left his room or the computer room, always working on one project or another.

"Hey, Yusuke," she replied, taking off her shoes, "working on anything worth my time listening to?" Yusuke rolled his eyes.

"What I consider important and what you consider important are completely different things," he retorted.

"In other words, no," she said as she passed home and walked into the kitchen, where her other two brothers, twins, were working on a difficult 3-D puzzle. Both nineteen and in university, they were the scientists of the family.

"Hiya, Geek #1, Geek #2," she greeted them cheerfully, a sigh that foretold danger. Once ignored, as she suspected, she hit them both over the head with one of the books she had bought earlier in the day, on of the thick, heavy hardcover ones. You know the ones.

Shocked back into this reality, they repaid her cheerfulness with a tackle. Akira, who she referred to as Geek #1, held down her arms and legs while Yue, who she called Geek #2, tickled her. Soon her peels of laughter became gasps for breath as they mercilessly tickled her sides.

"Uncle!" she shouted between her laughter, "uncle! I give!" Satisfied Yue stopped tickling her and Akira let her up off the floor. She quickly wiped the tears off her face, still gasping for breath and smiling.

"It's nice to see you too," they replied in unison. They looked at each other and rolled their eyes before returning to their puzzle.

"Are mom and dad out?" she asked them quickly before they were lost once again in their own little world.

"Yes," Yue answered. "They said they'd be back at around eleven," Akira finished. Haru looked at the clock hanging on the wall, it read 10:32.

"Thanks," she said picking up her bag and book, then heading for the stairs. "I'm beat, I'm going to bed. Please tell them that I returned home on time for once today."

"Whatever," they answered her. She made her way upstairs, got ready for bed, and crawled under the cold covers.

'_What and interesting day,'_ she thought wearily, _'I never thought that a chick could survive in a place like Osaka High. Heh, go figure.'_

**End Chapter One – To Be Continued**


	2. A Coincidental Meeting

**Left on the Wrong Side of Sexuality**

**FallenOtaku**

Author's note: Whee! I actually got some reviews! Thank you so much. **dramatic crying** I didn't believe I could actually make a story people would want to read… glad you're all enjoying it.

Okay, I have some things to explain for this story: first of all, I try as much as possible to keep with the Japanese way of saying the last name first, unless the characters are already well known. Second, I realize that there is a bit of OOC in this chapter and I an sorry, sometimes it just can't be helped…

UPDATE: I am revising the old stuff I have on the site here, and plan on getting some new stuff up in the next few days.

**Chapter Two: A Coincidental Meeting (Part 1)**

Soon after meeting Ashiya, Haru had somehow managed to unearth her deepest secret. Ashiya was a girl who cross dressed as a guy and entered a Japanese all boys school to be near the one she loved. Haru really didn't care that Mizuki was keeping a secret, and she certainly wasn't going to tell anyone. Meaning that once Mizuki learned Haru knew her secret, Haru, Rio, and Mizuki spent quite a bit of time together and soon became good friends.

"Haru! Haru, Rio's at the door. Get your lazy behind out of bed!" a voice called from downstairs. Haru groaned and pressed her pillow over her head. Someone knocked on her door and Rio burst in.

"What are you still doing in bed? It's nearly four!" she scolded, pulling off Haru's bed sheets. "Come on! Get up! We're gonna me late meeting Mizuki."

Haru sat up and brushed her bed head hair out of her half closed eyes.

"Uhhh… go ahead without me," she muttered rubbing her eyes, "It may take awhile for me to get ready. I'll meet you guys at the entrance of Dorm 2." Rio glared at her, hands on hips, trying to look intimidating.

"You'd better make it," she frowned, "if you don't, I will do something… something painful and evil to you!"

"Gotcha," Haru replied, giving Rio the thumbs up sign. Rio sighed and left to go meet up with the others and tell them the change in plans. Contemplating lying back down and going back to sleep, Haru sighed and rolled out of bed and onto the floor with a thump.

"Ouch."

Ten minutes later after scurrying to have a shower, get dressed, and grab her smallish dark purple book bag from her dresser, she leaves the house to make her way to Osaka High. She was wearing a dark green tank top with light blue capris. Since she was quite practical when it comes to dressing for weather or exercise, she wore her sneakers. Tying her hair back with a navy blue scrunchie, she jogged to the high school.

Even with her jogging, it took Haru another ten minutes to reach the front gate. Taking a deep breath, she walked over to where she was supposed to meet Rio and the others. As soon as she got there she saw to her disappointment that they were already gone. Just as she was walking past a side door on her way out, it opened and she crashed into the person exiting. Reeling back from the impact, she fell down on her butt.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized; embarrassed that she ran into someone. She looked up at the victim of her spaciness and almost gasped. The man standing before her could only be described as drop dead gorgeous, and left her speechless. He was wearing a long white coat, so she assumed that he was the school doctor.

"Why don't you look where you're going?" he asked waspishly as he adjusted his glasses on his nose. Once that was done, he looked down at her with a scowl.

"Oh!" he said in surprise, when he saw her, his attitude changing somewhat, "you're not from this school." She shook her head, her voice still not cooperating.

"What do you want?" he asked, the hard edge back in his voice. Haru got back up to her feet.

"I was supposed to meet some friends here," she explained, dusting off her butt. He looked back and forth across the campus, "well they don't seem to be here, so why don't you just leave now?" Haru's eyes lit up with angry flames at his snobbish attitude, she didn't like how rude he was being to her.

"For your information, I was just leaving," she retorted. Then she looked at him thoughtfully. "What's your name?" she asked.

"I don't see why it's any of your business," he snapped picking up a folder that he dropped when she crashed into him.

"So I know who to avoid when I come here in the future," she snarled back, glaring up at him, refusing to back down. _'Is that really why I wasn't to know his name?'_ she asked herself.

"Hokuto," he replied shortly, before walking off quickly, so that she would cease to annoy him.

'_Hokuto,'_ she thought as she walked down the street to the café called L'Arc en Ciel. This was the place Mizuki, Rio, and her spent most of their time hanging out. Entering the restaurant, she spotted the group sitting near the back of the room. She made her way over to them.

"Hi, guys," she said, sitting down in the only empty chair.

"What took ya?" Nakatsu asked, giving her a light punch on the shoulder. She gave him a withering look and punched him back twice as hard, making him wince and almost knocking him off his chair.

"I came as fast as I could," she informed them. The group of friends consisted of Mizuki, Rio, Sano, Nakatsu, Noe, Sekime, and Kayashima. She didn't really know Noe, Sekime and Kayashima all that much, since she had only met them a few time, but she was a sporty type person (even though she wasn't particularly good at them), so it was only natural that she had become friends with Nakatsu (even if it was a very competitive friendship) and Sano.

"Whatever," he replied, pretending her punch was nothing, "let's eat!" They ordered their food and when their food arrived and they were eating, Rio kept looking over at Haru in worry, for she didn't seem to be involved in the conversations as much today as she usually was. She was exceptionally quiet and hadn't eaten much of her food. Later, after everyone was done eating and they were ready to go home, Rio approached her.

"Hey," she said quietly to get Haru's adverted attention only, "Is something wrong? You've been really quiet."

"No," Haru responded, waving her hand in the air, "I didn't have much to say, so don't worry about me. I'm fine, really," she added when she saw the Rio didn't believe her.

"Well, as long as _you_ believe everything's okay," Rio sighed, "I can't exactly stop you from being mopey. Just tell me what issues you're having someday, and maybe I can help."

I'm not being mopey," Haru growled, sending Rio a glare of daggers, "everything's fine, all hunky dory!"

"Are you guys coming?" Misuki called from the door. The others had already left and were waiting impatiently outside.

"Yes, we're coming," Rio answered. They both rushed to rejoin the others, the earlier conversation already mostly forgotten.

"What should we do now?" Haru asked.

"Sleep," Sano replied, looking as if he was ready to nod off.

"No! The night is still young!" Nakatsu shouted, pointing his finger to the sky.

"Karaoke!" Noe and Sekime shouted together, pumping their fists into the air.

Since they lived in fairly busy part of the city, it was not hard to locate a karaoke bar. Both Haru and Nakatsu had been there before and had found it to be respectable.

"Who wants to go first?" Haru questioned once they reached their room and had settled in.

"We will," Noe spoke up, referring to him and Sekime. They sang first one song, then another, then another as they were cheered on by the others. Finally they passed the mic on to Nakatsu, who sang a sappy love song to Mizuki. When he was done, they all sat in tortured silence, waiting for their ears to stop ringing.

"Nakatsu?" Haru asked sweetly, "if you value your life, never, ever, sing that song again, or any other like it." Nakatsu looked at her in horror and wordlessly passed the mic to the nearest person, who happened to be none other than Sano.

"And what do you want me to do with this?" he asked Nakatsu, a look of annoyance crossing his face.

"Sing for us!" Mizuki and Rio said together. They started to chant when he vehemently refused, "Sing, sing, sing!" Soon the others joined in until be finally gave in and picked a song. The others were astonished by the skills he appeared to possess for not only high jumping, but singing as well. After the song ended, there was a moment of silence before his crowd of listeners started cheering for him.

"That was amazing!" Mizuki grinned, "I never knew you could sing!"

"I don't think any of us did," Kayashima uncharacteristically piped up, "by the way, were any of you aware that this room is haunted?" After receiving ectoplasm looks from everyone except Sano and Haru, he muttered, "Apparently not." A few more rounds of songs and Haru noticed it was getting late.

"Hey guys... it's already ten. We should probably head home. I don't know about the rest of you, but my curfew is ten-thirty," she informed them. They reluctantly agreed with her and got ready to go home.

"That was fun," Mizuki commented as she and Sano prepared for bed in their dorm room, "I hope we can all do that again sometime." Sano looked at her thoughtfully.

"Did it seem to you that Haru was a little out of it today?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she answered, "I wonder if something's wrong. I'll find out if Rio knows anything tomorrow. She was talking to Haru for a minute or so as we were leaving L'Arc en Ciel. Whatever it is, it's probably already sorted out."

"Hmmm. Maybe," Sano whispered under his breath.

Haru luckily made it home on time and quickly got ready for bed. Crawling into bed a stray thought entered her head.

_'What is with that doctor I met today? Does he always act like that, or am I just special? Why do I even care? And why the hell am I still thinking about him?' _Haru moaned in frustration and buried her head under her pillow, welcoming sleep.

End Chapter Two - To Be Continued


	3. Alone With the Devil

**Left on the Wrong Side of Sexuality**

**FallenOtaku**

Author's Note:Thank you all for your wonderful reviews. It makes me happy that some besides myself enjoys this fanfiction. Okay, yes, sadly Umeda is slightly OOC here, but hey, we knew it had to come, right? Otherwise, how could this story even work? He does change a bit in this fanfiction, but for the better! I promise! Anyway, I'll stop rambling and let you get on to reading the chapter.

UPDATE: Ok, still revising, but I swear I will have Chapter 4 up soon. Hurray!

**Chapter Three: Alone With the Devil**

Haru, though one of the top students in her class, was no stranger to skipping class. Usually once a week she would not show up for class and amazingly still be able to show her work for the day. No one really knew the reasons for why she skipped, but there were plenty of rumors floating around. Some say that there was an older man that she is involved with, while others would say that she's going off to fight in one of the gangs in the area. None were true (mostly), so she never said anything to make them stop, seeing it as a useless waste of effort.

Today was one of those days where she didn't feel like going to class, so she skipped out and began to wander the city. Dressed in a black T-shirt with a picture of the popular movie _'Nightmare Before Christmas'_, and dark blue hip-hugger jeans, instead of her school uniform, she walked around without any real purpose. Somehow she found herself wandering up to the Osaka High front gate.

_'Of all the places to end up,'_ she sighed, _'Whatever. Might as well see if Mizuki's around somewhere eating lunch.'_ It wasn't till that point did she realize that she had been wandering for about four hours and was now hungry. _'Meh.'_ She quickly scaled the gate and wandered between two of the buildings until she heard a voice call out.

"Can I help you?"

She turned around in surprise and came face to face (well, actually face to shirt) with the last person she expected to see again. She backed up with a scowl across her face.

"Oh, its you," Hokuto said flatly, "What do you want?"

"I do have a name you know," she replied hotly, ignoring his question, and rubbing her nose where it had met with his shirt.

"That's nice, so does everybody else," he said sarcastically, "Now tell me why you're here before I call the office to have you escorted out."

"Wandering," she shrugged, "not much else to do." He raised an eyebrow at her comment.

"What about school?" he asked.

"Meh," she replied nonchalant, "as long as my grades don't drop, they don't really care." Just then her stomach growled, loudly, and she looked at him with slight embarrassment. "Right, lunch. I kinda don't have one." Umeda looked down at her with a somewhat annoyed smirk on his face.

"And that's my problem, how? Whatever, follow me," he commanded, turning and walking towards one of the many buildings on campus.

_'Anywhere,'_ she briefly thought, then she realized what it was that she had thought, _'WHA? Where the hell did that come from? I can't stand this guy, he's a total prick!'_

_'... yet here I am, following him to some place that I don't know. For all I know he could be planning to rape me. I'm a dumb-ass.'_ She mentally sighed and continued to follow him through one of the buildings and into a medical office.

"Um, why am I here?" she asked, standing hesitantly in the doorway.

"Sit," was his only response as he began to dig through a large book bag resting on the desk.

"Yes, sir," she replied briskly with a small sarcastic salute before sitting down on a chair beside the desk. Umeda turned and tossed her an object. She caught it one handed and saw that it was a ham sandwich in a plastic bag. He sat down in what was probably his chair, as Haru suspected that this was his office, and took out another sandwich.

"Thanks," she said, taking a huge bite out of the sandwich. A sudden look of suspicion came across her face, "why are you being nice? This isn't poisoned is it? My first impression of you was that you were a grouchy, old doctor who hates everyone."

"That may be true," he replied, "but at twenty-eight, I should be allowed to act as I please."

"Okay... I take that back, not old, but definitely grouchy," she said, taking another bite of the sandwich. _'And definitely hot! Waitaminute... bad Haru, bad!'_

After finishing lunch in silence, a slightly awkward silence (at least to Haru who for some reason couldn't stop staring at Hokuto.), she asked, "How much longer till the lunch hour is over?" Umeda peered at his watch.

"Twenty minutes," he told her. She skipped towards the hallway, but stopped at the door.

"Hey, do you have any idea where I can find a boy by the name of Ashiya Mizuki?" she asked, not really expecting him to even know Mizuki.

"Check the roof," he answered, turning towards the pile of paper he had to get through on his desk.

"Thanks," she said, grinning, then dashing out the door, only to reappear a second later, "and thanks for the grub." She then ran back out the door.

Hokuto shook his head. _'Strange girl,'_ he thought before returning to his work.

Haru opened the door at the top of the stairs that led out onto the roof.

"Hi," she said cheerfully, walking over to the stunned group.

"H-Haru! What are you doing here?" Mizuki gasped. Haru grinned at her and sat down beside Sano.

"Geez. I come to visit you guys, and you sound as if you don't want to see me," Haru complained, grabbing a pork bun out of Nakatsu's bag in his lap.

"H-hey!" he sputtered, "That's mine, go buy your own!" He attempted to grab it out of her hand, but was too slow as she quickly stuffed the entire thing in her mouth and glared at him defiantly before he could reach it.

"But what about school? Don't you still have classes right now?" Mizuki inquired worried. Haru chewed and swallowed before answering.

"Probably," was her calm response. She crossed one leg over the other and leaned back against the building.

"Whoa! You mean you're skipping class?" Nakatsu said in awe, "but I thought you were a top grade student."

"I am," she replied, "I just don't feel like going to school sometimes."

"I think that's highly unwise," Sekime noted, pushing his glasses up on his nose, "especially for a beautiful girl like yourself," he said standing up and taking her hand in his. In response she kicked him in the face to impede any further advances.

"Get a life, you pervert," she growled, sitting back down.

"Yes ma'am," he croaked from his position on the ground.

"Boys," she said in disgust. Noe and Nakatsu looked down at Sekime in sympathy.

"Hey Mizuki-" Haru began, only to have the bell cut her off, seemingly determined not to let her ask Mizuki her question. "Never mind. I'll talk to you some other time," she turned and left the roof.

The next day, Haru once again found herself coincidentally outside Osaka High, at noon, but this time was different. She had her lunch with her this time. She walked to the building where she knew Hokuto's office was located.

"Knock, knock," she said, opening the door. Surprised, Umeda turned around from the seat in front of his computer.

"Oh, its you again. The girl," he remarked, turning back to his computer.

"My name's Haru," she told him, "remember that." She sad down in the chair beside his desk.

"What are you doing?" he questioned, looking slightly annoyed as he turned to face her.

_'Keep it cool, Haru. Ignore the face. Do not focus on the face!'_ "Eating," she replied, unwrapping her lunch.

"Here?" he raised an eyebrow, "just because I let out eat here out of sympathy yesterday, that makes you think you can just waltz in as you please?" Haru shrugged and began to eat. "Do as you wish then" he muttered in amusement, and pulled out his lunch too. They ate in silence for awhile until Haru looked up in sudden remembrance.

"Oh yeah. Thanks again for the food yesterday," she said appreciatively.

"It was nothing," he replied.

_'Maybe not to you,'_ she sighed internally. They finished eating and Umeda turned back to his work.

"They're always on the roof during lunch if you're going to visit them again," he informed her. She settled down in her chair and looked out the window.

"I'm going to stay here if you don't mind," she said. _'Ack! Bold move! He's going to kick you out for sure now.'_ Instead, he shrugged.

"Do whatever you want," he grunted, staring at the computer screen and tapping away at the keyboard. Soon after, the bell rang, but Haru ignored it and stayed where she was seated. Umeda stole a quick glance at he before returning to his work, a slight smile on his face.

As the last bell of the day rang, Mizuki stretched her arms over her head and sighed when her back cracked. _'Maybe I should go see Doctor Umeda about this. He could probably solve my back problems for me. Not without a massive amount of complaining first, of course.'_ she thought in amusement, picking up her books and heading to the good doctors office. She opened the door and almost gasped when she saw Haru sitting in the chair beside Umeda, looking out the window, apparently in deep thought. Umeda turned around from his paperwork.

"Oh, Ashiya, it's you. What can I refuse to help you with this time?" he asked, his face neutral. Haru chose this moment to finally snap out of her daze.

"Mizuki, hi!" she said, a smile on her face.

"Um, Haru, mind it I talk to you for a moment?" she asked.

"Sure," Haru replied.

"Good, come with me," she grabbed Haru by the arm and dragged her out of the office and didn't stop till the front gate.

"Haru, head home, sleep and meet me at L'Arc en Ciel tomorrow at 9:00 am. DO NOT be late!" Mizuki told her forcefully, grabbing her by the arms and shaking her slightly, as if to drive her instructions into Haru. Haru looked extremely confused, but agreed nonetheless. Making sure that Haru left Osaka High, Mizuki headed back to the main building and used one of the payphones to call Rio.

"Yes, Rio? It seems that we have a slight problem on our hands."

End Chapter Three - To Be Continued


	4. The Unspoken Truth is Revealed!

**Left on the Wrong Side of Sexuality**

**FallenOtaku**

Author's Note: Holy cow! Here I am, almost 3 years after I last updated this story. This time though, I finally intend to finish it! All that needs to be done is to retype the chapters back into my computer and then I wont have to feel so evil and guilty about not touching it for 3 years. But anywho, ONWARDS!

**Chapter Four: The Unspoken Truth is Revealed!**

Slightly anxious, Rio waited outside the cafe for Haru and Mizuki to show up. For whatever reason, the night before, Mizuki had phoned saying that there was a problem and it involved Haru. Then she went on to explain what the problem was...

"What?" Rio exclaimed in disbelief, "You're certain that Haru likes my brother?"

"Yes!" Mizuki's tinny voice replied over the phone, "she had this whole creepy glazed over look on her face and I think she skipped nearly the entire day of school and spent it in his office!"

"There's no way that this is happening! Do you think she knows?" Rio asked quietly, clutching the phone to her ear. Mizuki sighed over the phone.

"No, I don't think so. I'm not sure she even realized he's your brother. We're gonna have to tell her tomorrow. Meet us at the usual place," Mizuki said, "see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," Rio said before hanging up the phone.

_'Of all the people in the world, she had to choose the absolute unattainable,'_ Rio sighed to herself, '_that's so like her.' _Right at the end of that thought, Mizuki walked up dragging a half-asleep Haru behind her. Mizuki had an angry scowl on her face.

"As I thought, I had to go to her house and drag her out of bed," she growled, "Let's just get out of this rain already." Haru grinned sheepishly at her as they entered the cafe. They requested one of the booths in the back of the cafe that provided the maximum amount of privacy and ordered something to drink. As soon as the waitress left, both Rio and Mizuki pounced on Haru, verbally that is.

"Haru, do you know why we called you here today?" Rio asked politely.

"Not a clue," was her reply, "all I know is that you guys woke me up at too god damn early." She grumbled and pushed her unbrushed hair out of her eyes. Mizuki rolled her eyes at Rio who sighed.

"Haru, I saw you in Dr. Umeda's office yesterday. Did you spend all day there?" Mizuki asked after the waitress had returned with their coffee. She took a sip of her coffee and looked at Haru expectantly. Haru downed her coffee (black) in one go and almost appeared to perk up a bit.

"No," she replied uncertainly, "Well... not all day." A look of suspicion crossed her face, "why?"

"So you haven't spent a lot of time with him then?" Rio questioned her, ignoring her question.

"Actually, I spend one or two days a week with him. Although we never talk, I like it there," Haru said, her eyes slowly drifting off to rest on some unseen object.

"What?" Mizuki yelped, "for how long?" Haru looked at her in surprise at her reaction.

"Well, a few weeks I guess," she informed them.

"Are you going to tell her, or should I?" Mizuki asked Rio reluctantly. She looked uncertainly at Haru, who looked increasingly irritated.

"Okay! That's it. What the hell is with you guys today?" she snapped.

"Haru," Rio began slowly, trying to compose what to say to her, "I don't know if you knew, but Hokuto Umeda is my older brother."

"Hehn? Are you serious? Why didn't you tell me you had an older brother? Sure, I knew he has the same last name as you, but that's not much of a coincidence, and you've never even mentioned him before," Haru ranted.

"Then I've obviously never mentioned the fact that he is also gay," she said quietly.

"Hn? You're shitting me," Haru burst out, sitting up straight in her chair. She looked back and forth between Rio and Mizuki. "Seriously?" she exclaimed. _'No...'_ She collapsed back in her chair.

"I'm surprised he didn't tell you," Mizuki said, "usually he makes that clear from the moment he meets someone."

Haru put on her usual mask and asked, "Why would I care if he's gay or not?" Rio and Mizuki looked at her in stunned disbelief.

"But don't you like him?" Rio questioned. Haru pretended to look shocked by the concept.

"As in romantically? Hell no! Of course not! I've only ever seen him as a friend," she told them, attempting to make herself believe it as well.

"Really?" Mizuki asked flatly, giving her a look, "well if you say so."

"Yes, I do say so," Haru replied. They ordered food and chatted for another hour or so as they ate breakfast, completely dropping the subject.

Haru sat back and sighed, full from her plate of pancakes. Looking at Rio and Mizuki lazily she yawned, "I'm tired, so I'm heading home to go back to sleep," she informed them, "I'll see you guys later." She put money down on the table to pay for her food and left the cafe, walking out into the rain.

_'Hmph. Rain, how appropriate,'_ she thought, pulling her hoodie hood over her head to protect it from the rain. She put her hands in her pockets and looked up to the dark gray clouded sky, tears silently making their way down her face with the rain. _'I guess it would probably be best to avoid him from now on.'_

**Day 1 After Learning the Truth**

At school, Haru made sure not to let her emotions show to any one around her. She still acted the way she always did, though this time it wasn't truly sincere. She sighed and stared down at the paper in front of her on her desk, not really paying attention to what the teacher was saying at the front of the class. Slowly her thoughts drifted to a certain handsome doctor. Irritated with the direction of her thoughts, she tried to concentrate on her work, but found it to be impossible.

"Why do all the hot guys have to be gay?" she burst out, raising her fists to the heavens, before letting her head fall to the desktop. Her classmates and teacher watched her in stunned silence at her unexpected outburst. _'Oops,'_ She glared back at those watching her.

"What do you want?" she asked waspishly. _'Thank God I don't share this class with Rio.'_

**Day 2 After Learning the Truth**

Haru sat up in her bed and stared out the window located directly to the left of her bed, not really wanting to get up and go to hell, also referred to as school. _'Oh goody, more rain,'_ she though bitterly, pulling the bed covers over her head and balling back onto her pillow. Finally she dragged herself out of bed and headed off to school, muttering profanities under her breath.

_'Another uneventful day where I sit here and contemplate the meaning of life, the universe, everything, and why the hell I care for that bastard,'_ she sighed and tried to balance her pen on her nose, just for the heck of it. Unfortunately, she failed, glaring at her uncooperative pen, she tossed it down onto her desk. She groaned and shook her head, trying to concentrate on her work. She had been slacking lately and she marks were beginning to show that.

**Day 3 After Learning the Truth **

"What is the meaning of this, Miss Kuro?" her teacher asked, slapping Haru's latest test down on her desk, "your grades are slipping," he continued, "you failed the last test, and you only got 60% on this one! I expect better marks than this from my top student! This is clearly unacceptable. Perhaps we should call your parents about you're slight issue with forgetting to arrive for classes, hmm?"

"No, no," Haru replied hurriedly, "I've just been busy, is all, and I've had a lot on my mine. I swear I'll have better marks on the next test." Her teacher looked down at her with displeasure and grumbled, but thankfully left it at that and continued to hand the remainder of the exams out to the waiting students.

_'God dammit! I have to focus! No more wasting brain cells on the impossible,'_ she thought, staring down at the red marks scrawled across her paper.

**Day 8 After Learning the Truth**

After another week of sleepless night, Haru was about ready to rip out someone's hair in frustration. Most likely not her own.

"A person should not be able to think this much," she muttered walking down the street to school, "one more thought of him and I swear I'll scream."

Across the city as people rushed on their way to work and school, they heard a bloodcurdling scream of rage.

"Ah!" Haru sighed, ignoring the terrified and worried looks of the people around her, "now I feel much better." She walked swiftly to school, whistling.

The day crawled by for Haru. No matter now hard she tried to concentrate on her schoolwork, she just couldn't.

_'I have to do something about this,'_ she thought desperately, gathering her books and bag at the end of the day.

"That's it!" she burst out, a light filling her eyes. She continued to formulate the beginnings of her plan as she walked to Osaka High.

Stopping at the gate to collect herself, she took a nervous breath and stepped forward, listening to the pounding of her heart. _'I can do this.'_ she thought, steeling herself. She walked to his office, hesitating only momentarily at the door.

"Hokuto? Can I talk to you for a sec?" she asked tentatively as he turned in his seat.

"Haru," he said politely. He paused and studied her face, "Hmmm, I know that look on your face." He turned in his chair to face his computer. "If you are here to confess your undying love to me, you might as well forget such an idea and go home, and if you don't know by now, I'm gay. I'm not interested."

"I know," she replied quietly, walking up to his chair, "I know you're gay, and I know that I'll never have a chance with you." Turning his chair, she grabbed him by the collar and planted her lips on his. He froze in shock, his eyes going wide at how forward she was. Releasing him she quickly ran out the door, not even looking back. He sat back in his chair, slightly ruffled.

"That was... unexpected," he breathed.

_'I can't believe I did that!'_ Haru thought as she ran all the way home, blushing, _'Now maybe things can return back to normal. I'll forget about him, and finally get on with my life.'_

End Chapter 4 – To Be Continued


	5. Forever Has Never Been So Short

**Left on the Wrong Side of Sexuality**

**FallenOtaku**

Author's Note: **Squeals like a fangirl** Chapter 5! Can you believe it? I'm actually getting these out pretty fast. Yay me. I thought about waiting till next week to post this, to see if anyone way actually reading it anymore, but I really wanted to finish typing it up. Now that I'm working on it again, I've rediscovered how fun it was the first time (at least until I had to type it up on my computer at home, only to have to print it off to then type it up again at school, or where ever I happened to be to post it, but now I have my own place, with my own computer, and my own internet connection, so I only have to type it up again this once for and be done with it.).

Enojoy people! ^_^

**Chapter 5: Forever Has Never Been So Short**

"One month," Haru muttered to herself under her breath, "one month and I _still_ can't forget." She sighed and continued on the homework she had to finish for the next day. Finally finished, she put the paper in her binder, turned off her desk light and made her way downstairs.

"The vampire appears from the depths of her dark lair," Yue commented upon her arrival in the kitchen. Since their father worked late on weekdays, the family would wait for him to arrive, which was around nine o' clock. This meant that by the time she came down, everyone was just sitting down at the table.

"Ha ha, how funny you are," she replied sarcastically, sitting down in the only remaining seat beside her mother. Mrs. Kuro spooned food on to her plate.

"I'm so glad that you are dedicating yourself this much to your schoolwork," she said in approval, "if you want to get into Tokyo U, you have to work as hard as you can now, no more slacking off, you hear?"

"Mmmm," Haru replied noncommittally. She began to eat her food, not really focusing on the world around her.

As for the other person of interest, he had been in a bad moon for the past month, scaring all but Mizuki (and Akiha obviously, but since he hasn't been around for a while, he was unaware of the current situation).

"Are you going to tell me why you've been acting like this?" Mizuki asked, draped over the back of a chair in his office.

"No," he said shortly, writing on a piece of paper.

"Please," she pouted, rolling the chair closer to him.

"Forget it!" he answered her. Suddenly she got that look in her eyes, the one that announced that she had just solved a difficult puzzle.

"It's about Haru, isn't it?" she asked, watching as he snapped him pencil in half in irritation. _'Bingo,'_ she thought in triumph.

"Absolutely not," he lied, "I can hardly believe you would come to a conclusion like that."

"Right," Mizuki scoffed, "and I am an undead queen of zombies."

"Go away," Umeda countered, determined to ignore any other questions she may bombard him with.

"Fine," she said, walking out the door. Umeda watched after her in surprise. _'That was too easy...'_ he thought in suspicion.

Sitting on her bed, quietly reading a book after school, Rio was surprised when the phone rang downstairs. Assuming that if the call was for her, her mother would let her know.

"Hello?" she heard mother answer the phone cheerfully, "Oh! Of course, one moment please. Rio it's for you!"

"Um, alright," she said in slight confusion, since she wasn't expecting any calls. She got up and picked the portable phone up off the wall outside her door.

"Hello," she greeted.

"Rio! Hey, guess what?" came the cheerful voice of Mizuki from the other end.

"I don't know, what?" Rio asked, sitting back down on her bed.

"You remember how Haru likes Dr. Umeda, right?" Mizuki asked excitedly.

"Yes..." Rio answered slowly, unsure as to where this conversation was going.

"I think he has feelings for her too!" Mizuki whispered over the phone gleefully.

"What? You're kidding me," Rio exclaimed, nearly dropping the phone in surprised, "how do you know?"

"Nope, I'm not kidding. He's been so out of it for the last month or so, so today I asked what was wrong. He wouldn't tell me of course, but I made a guess and asked if his mood had anything to do with Haru. His reaction was most entertaining. He snapped his pencil in half. Unfortunately, he's being a stubborn fool," Mizuki explained. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked mischievously.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Rio denied, "Brother would kill us if we ever did anything like that!"

"No he wouldn't," Mizuki assured, "even if he would, I'd still risk it. Both Haru and Dr. Umeda have been miserable the last month, and I just want them to be happy."

"Well, I agree with you on that... Fine, what should we do? I mean, Brother is not likely to fall into any traps. He's too smart for that," Rio agreed.

Mizuki grinned, "I have an idea."

Umeda blinked as he stepped out of the school into the bright sunlight. Normally he wouldn't be outside his office at this time of day, but Mizuki had begged him to meet someone at L'Arc~en~Ciel. Something about needing advice.

_'Why am I here? Why did I agree to do this? I must be getting soft from spending too much time with Ashiya. Better not be another young boy confused about his goddamned sexuality,'_ he thought, _'if so, I'm out of there.'_ Lost in his thoughts, he had walked thought the door before realizing he was already at the cafe. A waitress came up to him and bowed.

"Good evening sir. Would you perchance happen to be Umeda Hokuto?" she asked. He nodded to her. "Then please, if you would follow me," she said, leading the way to what appeared to be a private booth at the back of the cafe. He looked down at the face of the person sitting at the table.

"You!" they both exclaimed at the same time, pointing at each other. Umeda turned around to leave, but was impeded by a waiter with his arms full of plates of food. Confused, he watched as the plates were set down on the table Haru occupied. He looked at her in disbelief.

"Do you plan on eating all that?" he asked her, momentarily forgetting the fact that he was about to hightail it out of there. She looked up at him in surprise because he had said something to her. She was sure that he would want to never set eyes on her again.

"What? No, I didn't even order it," she replied. She looked down at the food now sitting on the table in indecision then back up to Umeda, clearly making up her mind. "Hey! What am I supposed to do with all this food? I can't eat it all, and we certainly can't just waste it," she said fiercely, as he turned toward the door. She paused, then continued, "would you please help me eat it? There's no way I could just leave it," He sighed at the puppy dog look on her face, but sat down without a word.

"By the way," Haru started slowly after they had begun eating, "Why are you here? I thought you hated going out to places like this?"

"Ashiya told me she had a friend who needed advice and begged me to come here. If I had known she meant you, I probably wouldn't have come," he explained.

"Gee, thanks, but I don't need advice. Rio told me that Mizuki and her wanted to get together for dinner, but they haven't shown up, obviously. It seems to me that those scheming so-called friends of mine set me up," Haru seethed, taking a large bite of food. "I am so going to kill both of them when I see them next. They used my guilt against me so that I wouldn't leave the cafe. They know I can't stand to waste food."

"I see," was his only response. Haru knew she was babbling and hated herself for it, but unless she said something, they would continue eating in awkward silence. She looked over and noticed, that even though the booths gave fairly good privacy, they were not good enough, shown by the fact that a group of girls from her class were sitting a few tables away. They were all huddled together and whispering and giggling. Never a good sign. They kept taking glances over to Haru and Umeda before returning to their whispering and giggling.

"Great," Haru sighed, "now they'll think we are on a date or something."

"Which of course we are not. Since, if you have forgotten, I have no interest in women," Hokuto added.

"Of course," she agreed, glaring at her fellow classmates. They caught her glare and immediately stopped giggling. Soon after that, they left.

"What joy tomorrow is going to be," she said sarcastically. Hokuto grunted in response and continued to ignore her. Haru rolled her eyes and continued to eat.

Later, once all the food had been eaten, Haru looked outside and was surprised to see that it was already dark.

_'Actually, not surprising since Rio told me to meet them here at 7:00 pm. I wonder what time it is now?'_ she pondered. Noticing Hokuto had a watch on his wrist, she grabbed his arm to peer at the watch face.

"What are you doing?" he snapped at her, retrieving his arm from her grasp, wondering somewhat why it bothered him so much to have her touch him.

"Trying to see the time," she answered. He sighed and looked at the watch.

"9:18. Happy now?" he replied irritated. After Haru tried to pay for the bill and the waitress refused, saying it was already paid for, they walked out the door into the cool air. Haru turned to Umeda and half-bowed.

"Thank you for staying and helping me to eat all that food. I'm going home now, but maybe I'll see you around sometime," she told him. _'Yeah right.'_

"Do you live close to here?" he asked suddenly. Haru made a face and hesitated for a moment. Unfortunately, Umeda took this as a sign that she didn't want to answer him, so he was surprised when she did actually tell him.

"Well, not really. About 15 blocks away, actually," she confessed.

"And you're walking home alone?" he asked, to which she nodded. "No." She looked up at him in barely concealed confusion and surprise.

"And why not?"

"As much as I loath to say it, I cannot let you walk alone in the dark. I'm walking you home," he told her, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"What? B-but..." she sighed. "Fine, it's better than walking alone I guess," she gave in, actually very grateful he had offered. She didn't like having to walk home this late alone. It wasn't because she was afraid of the dark, or anything like that. Oh no, she wasn't scared at all, in fact, she was more often than not a night owl. It was just that there had been rumors about a man stalking girls in the area, and Haru for one, didn't want to cross him in a dark alley.

Haru walked beside Hokuto in silence, refusing to show that the night's cool air was making her shiver in her light T-shirt. _'Goddammit, I want him to hold me, but I can't just ask... and I definitely am not going to. I swore that I was going to forget him,'_ she thought, trying to strengthen herself. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately) for her, he did take notice. She snapped out of her daydreaming when she felt a weight on her shoulders. She stared at Umeda in shock, clearly not used to the idea that he could be compassionate to anyone.

"Um... thanks," she said quietly, slipping her arms into the oversized coat sleeves. He didn't even acknowledge her as they walked down the street. Haru felt herself slowly getting closer to Umeda with each step she took.

_'No! Bad Haru! Move your sorry ass away,'_ she thought, but her body seemed to have a mind of its own and continued to migrate towards him, until she inevitably bumped into him.

"S-sorry!" she stuttered, not really moving away.

"It's fine," he said quietly, before tensing and doing something completely unexpected. Silently he put his arm around her waist and pulled him against his side.

"W-wha?" she squeaked, almost attempting to pull away from him, but finding that she couldn't (and wouldn't).

"Quiet," he hissed, causing her to stiffen, "we're being followed." She felt her eyes widen in fear. She remained quiet for the rest of the walk to her house and Umeda kept his arm around her waist. Upon arriving he (reluctantly) let go of her.

"I think whoever it was is gone now," he said, and Haru sighed in relief. Umeda began to walk away in the direction of the school.

"Hokuto," she called out. He turned back and looked at her, "don't you want your coat back?"

"Eh? Yes," he replied, walking back over to her. He took the coat from her outstretched hand and left again.

"Thanks," she whispered to his retreating form.

**End Chapter 5 – To Be Continued**


	6. It's About Time!

**Left on the Wrong Side of Sexuality**

**FallenOtaku**

Author's Note: Man, I'm so having a blast writing this up again. :D And I hope you are all enjoying this story as much as I am. Only one more chapter after this one. Here you go, enjoy!

**Chapter Six: It's About Time!**

Haru sighed as she trudged up the steps of the school, dreading the rumors that were sure to assault her as soon as she opened the doors. Ignoring the looks and the whispering in the hall, she quietly made her way to class. Sitting down in her desk, she braced herself as a horde of girls stampeded over.

"So Haru, is it true that you were on a date with a really hot guys yesterday?" one asked, her voice snobbish and sickly-sweet.

"No," Haru replied tensely.

"Lie!" another girl piped up, "we saw you yesterday eating out with him.

"Who is he?" the leader of the group snapped, crossing her over-tanned arms over her chest.

"Nobody important!" Haru snapped back, slouching down in her chair. Luckily for her, the bell finally rang and the girls had to return to their seats, momentarily leaving her alone.

Haru survived the morning in this fashion until it was finally time for lunch, whereas she attempted to escape to the roof of the school. Unfortunately, before she could make her getaway, Rio ambushed her.

"So how was your day yesterday?" she asked Haru, unfazed by her glare.

"I'm going to kill you!" Haru snarled, running after a fleeing with her chopsticks in her hand, as if to use as a weapon, "I can't believe you would do that! It's been a living hell since we were seen together yesterday!"

"Aha! So you were on a date yesterday!" the snobbish group leader said triumphantly, overhearing the conversation, not that it was hard since Haru was nearly yelling.

"No, we weren't!" Haru yelled, stopping her attack on Rio and stomping out the door.

"She's stubborn," Rio chuckled.

Mizuki waved Sano and Nakatsu over to the table she was sitting at for lunch.

"So is it true?" Nakatsu asked, sitting down on her right. She looked back at him quizzically.

"What?" she responded as Sano sat on her left.

"Was Dr. Umeda seen on a date yesterday with a girl?" he clarified his question. Sano, who obviously hadn't heard the rumors, looked at Nakatsu in surprise.

"Who'd you hear that from," he inquired.

"I heard it from Tennoji, who heard it from his girlfriend, who heard it from girls at her school," he replied, digging into his food.

"I'm amazed that rumor managed to stay pretty much intact," Mizuki grinned, eating her lunch, "usually when rumors are spread across the schools, they become so twisted and untrue."

"So it's true then?" Nakatsu asked in amazement.

"Well, basically yes, but I believe he would kill you if you ever called it a date. And if I'm right, Haru would be an accomplice," she replied cryptically.

"Huh?" answered a clueless Nakatsu. Sano gave Mizuki a sharp look.

"You managed to get those two together?" he asked.

"Well, yes, but Rio and I sort of tricked them into it," she confessed.

"I wouldn't go see Dr. Umeda for a while if I were you," he commented, "He'll kill you." Mizuki flashed him a grin.

"Don't worry about me. I'm not scared of him," she said.

"Of course not," Sano muttered under his breath.

Umeda was sitting at his desk, writing out medical reports when a knock came from his door. He didn't even bother to turn around, still fuming from what his sister and Mizuki had done to him the day before.

"Will you kill me if I come in?" the being he most despised at that moment asked from the doorway.

"Currently no, but that is subject to change, depending on what you say," he answered her coldly.

_'Eeep!'_ Mizuki thought, grabbing a chair and sitting down.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?" he ranted, "I wish I could kill you where you stand. And that sister of mine, I should poison your food,take my revenge! I don't know why I even bothered listening to you in the first place. I should have known you were up to no good. I vow I will never trust you again." _'My god, what happened to me? I sound so childish!'_ Mizuki sat quietly in her chair as he ranted, trying not to draw attention to herself. Hokuto heaved a sigh and sat back in his chair.

"Why are you here?" he asked wearily, taking off his glasses and draping one arm over his eyes.

"You're really confusing her ya know," she told him quietly, "you should go talk to her. Sort this all out. She needs it right now."

"Since when do you tell me what to do?" he replied snidely, "if you remember correctly, _I'm_ the doctor, not you."

"Still, I think you should listen to this advice," she said as the bell rang, signaling that it was time for her to return to class.

"Annoying girl," he muttered to himself.

Standing outside the Saint Blossom High School gate, Umeda lit a cigarette and leaned against the bricks, wondering what the hell he was doing there in the first place. Thankfully the last bell of the day rang before he could change his mind and leave, students streaming out of the gate. Too late he remembered that Saint Blossom was an all girls school. Realizing he was in a very bad place, he attempted to escape from the horde of girls, but was too late, he was already surrounded.

"Hey there, what are you doing somewhere like this?" one asked him.

"Are you looking for someone?" asked another. "He certainly won't need to look anymore," another giggled to her friend. Determined not to look anymore stupid than he already did, he stood up tall and stared down at them.

"Leave me alone," he said coldly, "I'm certainly not interested in any of you _children_." Desperate to get away he used his last strategy, "I'm gay, so go away already." Disappointed, the horde slowly dispersed, grumbling. He sighed and leaned back against the cold brick wall.

"That was predictable and mildly amusing," Haru commented, walking up to him once the horde had left, "now that I"m here, what do you want?"

"Well, I have things I must discuss with you, but I feel that this is not the opportune time," he said quietly, "meet me at that cafe from yesterday at eight tonight." That said, he walked away, not bothering to hear her response.

"Fine, I guess," she whispered to his retreating form, "damn, I seem to be doing this way too often." She shook her head and began her walk home, ignoring the curious and envious looks she was getting from other students. She grimaced slightly when she saw the same girls standing together and whispering, that were at the cafe before.

_'Aw shit,'_ she thought, _'I hate rumors!'_

Back home, Haru attempted to work on the ton of homework that she had received that day.

_'What could he possibly have to say to me now?'_ she wondered, _'Whatever it is, I'll find out about it later, now I really need to finish this stupid homework.'_ She glanced up at her alarm clock and took note of the time. _'Six thirty... if I leave now, I'll get there at about seven, but I'm really bored. Ah, what the hell. Who cares if I'm an hour early anyway?'_ She packed up her incomplete homework and opened her closet for something to wear.

"Why am I looking for something nice to wear? It's not like this is a date," she told herself, "but what the heck. Maybe I'll knock his socks off and he'll change his mind. Psh! Yeah right. Keep dreaming Haru," she sifted through her clothes for something other than her regular T-shirt and ripped jeans. After discarding many clothes she didn't feel were right, she finally settled on a light orange v-cut spaghetti strap top with an open green sweater over top, and light blue jeans. She brushed her hair back into a messy ponytail and headed out the door.

Upon reaching the cafe, Haru realized she was still 15 minutes early. _'Man, I had hoped getting ready would take up more time.'_

"Whatever," she sighed, sitting down on the bench outside the door to wait for Hokuto. Shortly thereafter, he arrived, and Haru nodded to him in greeting.

"You're early," he noted, opening the door.

"Finished my homework early," she lied smoothly, walking through the open door.

"I see."

They found and empty table and sat down, neither saying a word. A waiter came over and gave them menus. Still not saying a word to each other they flipped through the menus and ordered their food when the waiter came back.

"How are things at Osaka High?" She asked finally, breaking the evil silence.

"Really no difference since the last time you were there," he replied.

"Oh," she said, their conversation going stale once again.

_'Why can't I just tell her?'_ Umeda thought irritated at himself for hesitating and not wanting to hurt this girls feelings,_ 'One simple sentence and you can forget about all of this and have her quit hanging around and making your life difficult.'_ He looked over at Haru who was resting her head on her hand and looking out the window, a slight dazed look on her face. _'She really is a space case,'_ he thought with... dare I say it... affection.

Haru stared out the window, not bored really, even though neither of them were speaking. Being polite, Haru waited for Hokuto to start the conversation she knew he intended to have. (Actually, I would class her silence as avoiding the inevitable.) She was also enjoying the short time she had in his presence right now. It always did seem to have a calming effect on her.

_'Perhaps I should tell her I found out that it was Rio and Ashiya that were following us when I walked her home yesterday,'_ Hokuto thought, clearly avoiding the topic of which he wanted to clear up. The food then came and they devoted their attentions to their plates. In one final attempt they tried to make small talk, but they didn't seem to have anything to say to each other. The awkward silence continued until the end of the meal, and once done, Haru reached into her back pocket to grab her wallet to pay for her part of the meal.

"Put that away," Hokuto said, reaching into his coat for his wallet.

"What? No," she refused stubbornly.

"I asked you to come here, so the least I can do is pay for the damn food," he growled, "put it away."

"Fine," she grumbled, returning her wallet to her pocket. Without even having to say anything, Umeda began to walk her home.

"You don't have to go out of your way to walk me home, ya know. It's not like it's that far away to my house," she said after a couple minutes.

"It's the right thing to do," he replied with a shrug. Haru opened her mouth to ask him why, when she heard footsteps in one of the pitch-black side alleys. She sucked in her breath in surprise and slight fear.

"Don't worry. I think it's just Rio and Ashiya again," he breathed in her ear, moving her closer to him, almost instinctively. Haru looked up at him in surprise.

"Again?" she questioned as they continued walking down the dark, quiet street.

"Yes, they were following us when they set us up yesterday," he explained, "I saw them after I left your place." Haru looked confused again.

"But I didn't tell them that we would be together today," she said.

As soon as she had finished that sentence, a bushy, thin, sickly looking man burst out of the alley, holding a large knife, and swinging it threateningly. He sprung towards them, swinging the knife in a large arc towards Haru, catching her right upper arm and leaving a long deep gash. She cried out in pain, grabbed her injured arm with her left hand and sank down to the ground where a small pool of blood was forming. Umeda instinctively jumped in front of Haru to protect her from further injury from the crazed man. The madman rushed at him with a wild roar. Umeda sidestepped the knife, narrowly missing his stomach being sliced open. He pushed the man, who was overbalanced, and knocked him into the wall, making him drop his weapon. As the killer attempted to stand up straight, Hokuto punched him hard in the gut, knocking the breath out of him. The man fell back to the ground, gasping, before falling unconscious. Regaining his breath, Umeda took off his belt, motioning Haru to do the same.

"Give me your belt," he commanded, holding out his hand.

"Why," she asked, already trying to remove her belt with her uninjured arm, hissing in pain when she accidentally jerked her right arm.

"I'm tying him up," he explained as he looped the belts around the unconscious mans hands and feet, " now follow me."

"Where are we going?" she asked as he led her down one of the connected streets, nearly the opposite direction of her home.

"To the police station by the school," he said.

"Um... maybe we should just call, or something," Haru said hesitantly.

"Why?" Hokuto asked in genuine surprise.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I really don't feel like being interrogated by the police, if it's all the same to you, and I really hate the police station," she explained, a pink flush making its way across her face.

"Why the hell not?"

"Let's just say that the chief and I don't get along well."

He gave her an odd look, "Looks like you have a story to tell. How about this, then? We make the call anonymous," he compromised.

"As long as I don't have to go to the police personally, I don't care what you do," she sighed.

"We're here," Hokuto said, walking up to one of the houses lining the street.

"Ah... where is here?"

"This is where I live," he said, opening the door and leading her into the house, and into the kitchen.

"Hey, this isn't too far from my house," Haru commented.

"Even closer to the school," he replied.

"But don't you take the bus to school?"

"I hate walking that early in the morning, and it's only one stop away."

"Whatever."

"Sit and stay put," he demanded, momentarily leaving the room, "I'm still calling the police."

"Kay," she said, weakly, although she would never admit to that. She sat down at the kitchen table and waited for his return. After about five minutes, he returned with a box of first aid stuff. He sat the box down on the table and kneeled down in front of her on the floor.

"Give me your arm," he ordered.

"No," she said defiantly, glaring at him.

"What do you mean 'no'? You're injured. Give me your goddamn arm. You have lost too much blood and are not thinking right," he growled.

"It's not that bad," she protested, "it'll heal on it's own."

"Sure, a slow and painful healing, with a horrible scar. Give me your arm before _I'm_ tempted to injure you," he said, glaring back at her, "if you have enough blood in you right now, remember that _I'm_ the doctor and I know what I'm doing."

"Fine," she relented, still scowling at him as he lifted her arm up to inspect the wound, "I was just so useless out there wasn't I? Dammit! I can't even defend myself."

"Stop it!" Umeda scolded, "You are not allowed to go on a self-pity rant, at least not until I'm done patching you up. You need stitches."

"I hate it!" Haru cried, "can't do anything right, can I? But still... gotta keep doing something. Makes me furious when someone tries to take care of me. I feel selfish when they waste their time on someone pitiful like me. S'like I'm taking 'dvantage of their gen'ros'ty." By the end of her rant, Haru was beginning to slur her words and feel slightly woozy. Umeda noted this as he placed the final stitch in her arm, and wrapped it up with a bandage.

"I'm sure it's alright to care only about yourself for awhile," he said gently.

"But I still feel s'useless," she said, almost seeming to wilt under his gaze.

"You can be selfish right now if you want," he told her, looking up at her sorrowful face. (AN: Hey! What happened to hating each other?)

"Really?" she asked shyly, feeling completely inferior and out of character. Hokuto smirked and nodded. He reached up and firmly brought her head closer to his, gently kissing her on the lips. She jerked away in surprise.

"Wha?" she exclaimed, face flushed a deep red, "why did you just do that? If you are trying to make me feel better, that's not the way to go about it."

He shook his head, "It's not that." He sighed, "I realized something when we were attacked earlier."

"And what was that?" 

"I never did say what I was going to at L'Arc en Ciel," he said, changing the topic, "what I was going to tell you was, 'Whatever little fantasy of yours that includes me should may as well be forgotten, because they would never become reality'."

"Ouch," Haru replied, emotionally stung. She had expected something like that to be said, but it still hurt to hear it said out loud. "I already knew that. Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because I couldn't say it." Haru looked at him sharply. Whatever he was going to say, she certainly didn't expect this.

"I didn't want to say it," he continued, "which brings me back to what I had realized. When you were attacked, I panicked. The thought of you being hurt or killed, utterly terrified me. I didn't want you to go, you are far too important to me." He chuckled, "That's not something I ever thought I was going to hear myself say this to a girl, I must admit."

"Then what are you saying?" she asked in a whisper.

"That I'm one hell of a gay," he laughed, sitting down on the chair beside her, a rare look of vulnerability on his face, "I feel for you, Haru, I'm not sure if it's love, or what, but I feel very strongly for you." Haru stared at him in shock, her mouth hanging open, flapping like a fish out of water. Then this funny look came over her face.

"So does this mean you're bi then?" she asked.

"Who cares?" he replied.

"Not me," Haru grinned. She looked up at him through her eyelashes, suddenly shy, "I... feel something for you too." She looked down at her hands in her lap as if they were suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. Hokuto pulled her up into a tender hug and kissed the top of her head.

"You are covered in blood," he stated, holding her at arms length. Haru looked at her clothes in surprise.

"Oh, I guess I am." she said, pulling at the hem of her tank top.

"Wait here for a minute. I'll be right back," he said, walking out of the room again. Haru could hear him shuffling around in another room before returning with a black button-down shirt.

"Here," he said, passing it to her, "you can wear this until your clothes are clean."

"What? You're gonna do laundry just for me?" she said worriedly.

"Hell no. I have my own laundry I was planning on doing tomorrow," he replied, "might as well get it over with now." He suddenly seemed to notice how pale she was, "do you want a drink?"

"Water, please," she said. As he was getting her water, Haru stripped out of her tank to, not really caring if Umeda happened to turn around and see her without her shirt. Naturally, he did as she slipped into his shirt, raising an eyebrow.

"You don't possess modestly, do you?" he asked as she stripped of her pants.

"Nope," she replied, "never have, probably never will." She buttoned up the shirt and took the water from Umeda's hand when he passes it to her. He picked up her bloody clothes and left the room again. Haru sipped on her water as she listened to the washing machine start up. Hokuto came back into the kitchen shortly after. He walked up to her and slid his arms around her middle, pulling her back up against his chest, and resting his chin on her shoulder. She gasped slightly at the contact.

"That could prove to be interesting," he breathed in her ear, his warm breath caressing her neck and sending shivers down her spine. She leaned back into his embrace with a sigh, taking a drink of her water.

"Mm-hmm," she nearly purred, closing her eyes. Hokuto began to slowly kiss the side of her neck and and jaw line. Haru opened her eyes again and tilted her head to look up at him.

"Hey, you trying to start something there, buddy?" she asked, turning around to face him, setting her cup down on the counter beside her.

"Maybe," he replied, with a gleam in his eyes. With a dawning realization, Haru bit her lip and pushed him away.

"What's the matter?" he asked, hands resting on her waist. She colored, obviously struggling at speaking what was on her mind.

"Um... well... if we are going to... do something, then I want to, um, be safe," she said, turning even redder.

"And what makes you think that I have anything like that?" he asked her.

"Well, you are a guy," she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Think for a moment, Haru. Have I ever had any need for something like that before?" he asked, head tilted to the side. Her mouth formed an "o" and she blushed more, and looked away. He laughed and let go of her.

"I'll be right back, then," he said, grabbing his coat and walking out the door.

"Oh, um, okay," she muttered, sitting down at the table, "I'll stay here I guess."

_'Do I really want to do this?'_ she questioned herself, _'Well, the answer to that is apparent, but am I ready for this?'_ She fiddled with her hair between her fingers, waiting for Umeda to return.

_'Hm... glad I'm already on the pill,'_ she continued her mental conversation with herself,_ 'Reasons why I am glad for the pill, let me count the ways; regulated period, lessens evil cramps, and of course, it's original purpose.'_ The from door opened and Hokuto walked in, snapping her out of her daydream.

"Well, that was different," he commented, sitting down beside her.

"Really, I couldn't imagine why," she said sarcastically. There was a moment of silence where they just looked at each other, then Umeda pulled her close, and their lips met. For once, Haru felt that everything was right in the world. He reluctantly released her lips and grabbed her by the hand, leading her into the bedroom...

*****imaginative bowl of citrus fruit (use your own minds people! I shouldn't have to for you. Sheesh!)*****

Haru lazily opened her eyes, not ready to wake up, as she was wrapped in a large cocoon of warmth. Focusing, she realized she was in the arms of Hokuto, snuggled into her chest. Sighing, she was about to drift back to sleep when she saw the bright blue light of the digital clock on that wall stating that it was nearly eleven pm.

"Shit!" she swore, struggling to sit up. In doing so, she woke up Umeda, who game her a look of pure loathing for waking him up.

"What are you doing?" he growled.

"It's eleven at night. My parents are going to kill me!" she explained, finally managing to pull herself out of his grasp and sitting me.

"Hn," he replied, sitting up too, "Why don't you just call them and say that you're staying at Rio's for the night?"

"Might work," she said, throwing her borrowed shirt over her shoulders, not even bothering to button it up, "where's the phone?"

"Beside the fridge," he answered. Haru quickly made her way to the kitchen, despite it being nearly pitch-black, and she wasn't able to see very well. Following the blinking red light, she grabbed the phone and dialed the number.

After four rings and Haru nearly giving up, someone finally answered, "Hello?" came the sleepy voice over the phone. Haru sighed.

"Hey, Rio? It's Haru. Could you do me a favor? I'm going to tell my parents that I'm staying at your place tonight, would you please cover for me?" she asked quickly.

"Sure," Rio sighed, "but what for? Where are you?"

"Thanks, I'll tell you tomorrow, bye," she said quickly, hanging up in advance of any other questions Rio might ask. Sighing, she began to phone home, only to have the phone ring in her hands, scaring her. Willing her heart to stop hammering in her chest, she answered.

"Hello?" she squeaked.

"It's called caller id, you dumb-ass," came Rio's annoyed voice, "What made you think that I wouldn't have my brothers number on my cell? Now I'm tempted to ask what the hell you're doing there, but I fear it may result in me being scarred for life, so I'm gonna leave it alone."

"Okay," Haru replied meekly, blushing.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow," Rio said with a yawn, hanging up. Regaining her composure, she dialed her parents number and explained to them how Rio and her were watching movies and lost track of the time, and how she would be spending the night at Rio's. Hanging up, she sighed again, thankful that her parents didn't have caller id, and couldn't trace her call.

"All settled?" Hokuto asked her when she returned to the bedroom.

"Mostly," she cringed, "although I have to talk with Rio about this tomorrow." He chuckled, as she crawled back under the covers.

"Have fun," was his reply, "well, at least this means that I get to have you for the rest of the night." Haru giggled as he kissed her.

"I swear, there is no end to your sexual appetite," she replied, kissing him back.

"Why don't we find out?" was his remark.

***** Lime Ahoy! *****

**End Chapter 6 – To Be Continued**


	7. The Final Moment

**Left on the Wrong Side of Sexuality**

**FallenOtaku**

Author's Note: Final chapter! **dances** So this chapter is a bit rough... All of the other ones have gone through at least 2 times of editing, whereas this one hasn't even been typed up before. Therefore, please forgive the crappiness. Other than that, enjoy! Oh, and please review if you liked it. ^_^

**Chapter Seven: The Final Moment **

Akiha Bara grinned as he strolled down the street towards his photo studio. After months of being out of the country on a shoot, he had finally returned home to Japan. As he walked, he spotted a pretty girl making her way through the crowd in his direction. As she was about to pass him, he grabbed her arm.

"Excuse me, miss," he said. She stopped and looked at him in surprise.

"Yes?" she replied. He let go of her arm, sure that she was going to listen to what he had to say.

"Have you ever thought of a career in modeling?" he asked smoothly, with his most charming smile.

"Who me? No, never," she said, surprise clearly written across her face.

"Would you like a chance? I am a photographer, and I'm searching for new models to shoot," he told her. She looked at him sceptically.

"You actually think I would believe your story and say yes?" she scoffed, "What a load of bull. For all I know, you could be some creepy slave trader that dupes stupid girls into following you and then selling them to other countries."

"What?" he exclaimed, hand over his heart as if deeply wounded, "do I really look like someone who would be as devious as that?"

"Yes," she replied bluntly.

"You will get paid for your time on set," he said, still trying to convince her.

"Forget it," she said, walking around him.

"Well if you change your mind, here's my card. The address is on the back. If you change your mind, come by tomorrow around ten o' clock AM," he replied, handing her the card.

"Ya, whatever. I'm not going," she told him, quickening her pace, although she did stick the card into her bookbag. She shook her head at the sheer stupidity of the man for thinking she was going to change her mind.

Haru smiled when she saw the tall buildings of Osaka High. Climbing ninja-like over the front gate, she made her way to Hokuto's office. Quietly she slipped through the closed door and attempted to sneak up behind Umeda with the intention of startling him as he sat unexpectedly in his chair.

"Good morning, Haru," he said without turning around. She pouted and walked the rest of the way to his desk. She draped her arms around his neck and over his chest.

"I swear, you have eyes in the back of your head," she mumbled in his ear before kissing him on the cheek.

"I don't need them. You are not as light on your feet as you seem to think you are," he replied, looking up at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Meanie," she whispered, glaring at him. "So the weirdest thing happened to me today on the way here," she said casually.

"Really?" Hokuto asked, seemingly uncaring about what she had to say.

"Yeah, I was walking down the street and this strange guy came up to me and asked me if I was interested in modeling for him," she began.

"And?" he asked, tensing up slightly, "Please tell me you weren't stupid enough to say yes." Haru's heart fluttered as he said that. She smiled slightly to herself at his protectiveness.

"Hup!" came a voice from the window, as Akiha climbed through Umeda's window.

"That's him!" she exclaimed.

"Hm? Well, this is not something I ever expected to see," Akiha commented upon seeing Haru with her arms around Hokuto, "Now it appears that I may have to share my beloved Hokuto with someone else, and a girl no less!" Akiha found himself on the floor suddenly with both Umeda and Haru's feet jammed into his head after making that comment.

"I am not ANYTHING of yours," Umeda spat, adjusting his glasses on his face.

"And I'm not about to share him with anyone," Haru said, her voice cold. She turned to Hokuto, "Who is this guy anyway? And why the hell does he know you? Is he an old boyfriend or yours?" Umeda's face morphed into a mask of horror.

"Never!" he replied in apparent disgust.

"Okay, okay," she replied hastily, "just asking."

"I am the famous photographer Akiha Bara," he said, sitting down in Hokuto's chair, "and I have asked for the pleasure of you modeling for me."

"Out of my chair," Umeda interrupted him, only to be ignored.

"As for your question of how I know Hokuto, I have been pursuing him for some time, but to be constantly rejected by him," Akiha said melodramatically, his hand resting on his forehead.

"Leave," Umeda said, pointing to the door.

"But why?" Akiha whined.

"Now. Before I inform the school administration that you are trespassing on school property," he growled.

"Then this is where I take my leave," Akiha said, taking a bow at the window, "Haru, perhaps I shall see you tomorrow."

"Um, ya, sure," she replied as he jumped out the window.

"Did you actually agree to model for that creep?" Hokuto asked incredulously.

"Well, no, but now I'm thinking I might. He said I would get paid well for doing the shoot, and I could really use the money, and now that I know he isn't actually some slave trader or something, I'm not that worried," she said.

"I guess this means that I won't be able to convince you not to go," Umeda said, sitting down in his now empty chair and taking off his glasses to rub his eyes.

"No, not likely, she replied cheerfully, sitting on the corner of his desk.

"Wonderful," he sighed. Suddenly he smirked, put his glasses back on and stood up, leaning in close to Haru, placing his hands on either side of her on the desk, "Honey, if you love me, would you please, please, reconsider?" he asked, using an old game, but twisting the words for his use. Realizing what he was doing, she smirked back.

"Hunny, you know I love you, but I just can't back down," she replied, moving closer so that their noses touched.

Hokuto put his lips to hers and she sighed, quickly responding to his advance. Shortly thereafter though, the school bell rang, startling both of them into moving apart.

"Any idea what bell that was?" she asked, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"Lunch, I believe. If you are going to visit Ashiya, now would be the time to do it," he told her, returning to his chair. Haru shook her head, hopped off this desk and sat in the chair beside him.

"No, that's ok. I think I'll stay here, if you don't mind," she said.

"I don't mind," he replied, "Oh, and how is your arm?" Haru looked down at her arm and winced.

"Painful, but not the worst I've had," she told him. He turned his chair and took hold of her arm.

"Let me change the bandage for you," he said, "I probably should have done that before you left this morning."

"S'okay," she replied, "It wasn't that bad." After he changed the bandage, Haru sat back in the chair and relaxed. After a while, she woke and realized that she had fallen asleep at some point. Blinking she looked around in confusion. _'Hokuto's office... duh. But what time is it?'_ attempting to look down at her watch, she saw that she was covered in a familiar coat. Adjusting the coat to fall around her shoulders, she once again looked down at her watch which read 5:00 PM. _'Wow, late.'_

"Have a good nap?" came a voice from the door.

"Yeah," Haru answered Hokuto as he sat down in his chair with a cup of coffee.

"Good. Now go home. Sleep," he ordered. Rubbing her eyes, Haru yawned.

"What about you?"

"I still have a bunch of paperwork to fill out. Now go, sleep."

"That's probably a good idea," she said, getting up and setting the coat down on her now empty chair. "I'll see you tomorrow I guess," she said kissing him and then leaving through the door.

Haru let out her breath and attempted to calm herself down as she stood outside the photo studio. She had no trouble finding the place since it was conveniently located only a couple bus stops away. She walked through the front door of the rather plain looking building and was surprised to find herself assaulted with the bustling noise and movement of many workers.

"Haru!" called Akiha from the other side of the room. He waved her over. "I'm very glad you decided to come after all." He motioned to the woman standing beside him, "This is Ebi. She's in charge of your makeup once you've tried on the clothes and gotten ready." He pushed her slightly in the direction of one of the rooms, "Your clothes are in there. Meet me in the studio when you are ready to begin." Ebi led her into the room Akiha had pointed out to her.

"Pleased to meet you," Ebi said with a smile, "I'm sorry for rushing you like this, but there was a shoot last night and everyone is scrambling to finish up the last of the clean up."

"It's no problem," Haru smiled. Ebi left and she began changing into the clothes. The outfit consisted of a tight dark blue shirt that was open from the shoulders to the bust in a V-neck, with a choker collar around her neck held together by a heart shaped lock. The pants were a lighter blue and quite tight. They also had dark ribbons attached to the pants like belts in a criss-cross pattern from the thighs to the ankles. She wore regular dark army type boots. Wincing a bit as she looked at herself in the mirror, Haru fingered the bandage wrapped around her arm.

"Well, what am I gonna do about that?" she wondered out loud. Sighing, she opened the door to come face to face with a waiting Akiha.

"Ready?" he asked, then he noticed her arm, "What happened?" he asked her, a look of worry on his face.

"Just an accident a few days ago," she replied, "No big deal, but what do you want me to do about it for the photo shoot?"

"Hmmm, well why don't we just add it to the outfit?" he said after a moment of thinking. He motioned another person over and talked quietly to them for a minute. The other person nodded and ran off, only to return a few moments later with light blue ribbons.

"We'll just wrap these around your arms, make it look like it was intended to look that way," he explained as he wrapped one of the ribbons around her bandage, tying it off and leaving the ends hanging. He then wrapped the other one around her left forearm, tying it off in the same way. Akiha stepped back to view his handiwork. "Not bad," he exclaimed, a grin on his face, "Ebi's down the hall, second door on the right. Time for your make up." Haru nodded and made her way down to Ebi's room. She entered the room with a knock, and smiled at Ebi when she turned around.

"Nice," she praised, looking Haru up and down, "although I don't remember the ribbons being in the plan."

"Last minute addition by Akiha," Haru explained. Ebi nodded.

"He tends to do things like that. Now if you would please sit so that we can begin." Haru sat in the high chair and closed her eyes as Ebi got to work. She first washed Haru's hair and blow dried it so that it would become light and fluffy. She then added a mixture of blue eye shadows to Haru's lids. Next she added black eyeliner on her lower lids, and mascara. A shimmery pink lip gloss finished the look.

"Perfect!" exclaimed Ebi, proudly placing her hands on her hips.

"Done?" Haru asked anxiously, squirming in her seat.

"Yep," Ebi replied, "You're free to go. Akiha will be in the studio. He's probably waiting for you now."

"Thanks Ebi!" Haru grinned, jumping out of the chair.

"Anytime!" she called after Haru's retreating form. Haru spotted Akiha standing behind a camera that was set up towards a blank background. He whistled when he turned around and saw her standing there.

"You, look stunning," he said appreciatively, giving her a once over. She blushed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"So this is how your managed to catch the attention of the elusive Umeda Hokuto," he said, more of a statement than a question.

"I don't know if you can call it that," she muttered, looking down at the ground, embarassed.

"I can see why he cares," Akiha continued, "look at you, you're definitely beautiful, smart, from what I hear, and have an attitude to match his. If you weren't already taken..." Haru looked up at him as he trailed off and raised her eyebrows.

"Mr. Bara, are you trying to seduce me?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Maybe," he said with a mischievous grin.

"Forget it," Haru replied sweetly, a dangerous glint in her eye.

"Kidding, kidding," he said hurriedly, hands up in the air as if to fend her off if she tried to attack or something. She rolled her eyes at him.

"So," he whispered conspiratorially, "have you two slept together yet?" Haru turned bright red and attempted to sputter an answer.

"I don't see how that's any of your business," she finally snapped.

"I see," he replied, sounding all knowing.

"Can we please start the shoot?" Haru asked, trying to change the subject. Akiha laughed.

"Of course," he said, "just try to look natural."

A couple days later...

Umeda looked up as Haru walked through the door to his office.

"What happened with schoolwork today?" he asked her, setting his pen down, "I thought you said you said you had lots of work this week."

"Easy stuff, no homework after all," she replied, sitting on the corner of his desk.

"So you decided to come annoy me while I'm working?" he asked, only slightly annoyed.

"Yep. Pretty much, but you missed the fact that schools out for the day," she informed him. He raised his eyebrow.

"So then what do you plan on doing here until you have to head home?" he asked.

"Hmmm, I can think of a few things," she said, smiling wickedly as she hopped off the desk and leaned closer to him. He looked back at her with a faint smile on his lips, as he stood up.

"PG rating or higher?" he questioned, leaning closer to her, pinning her up against the desk.

"Considering that we are in a public place, I vote for PG," she told him.

"I think I can handle that... for now," he whispered in her ear, sending the familiar shivers down her spine. His lips pressed softly against her, almost as if playing a game. She responded eagerly, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him fiercely.

"Hey, Dr. Umeda I-" came Ashiya's voice from the door, "Oh! I'll come back later," Disengaging herself from Hokuto, Haru called Mizuki back.

"Get you sorry ass back here," she grinned, "I haven't seen you all seek and now you're avoiding me? Sheesh! Some friend you are," she teased.

"Haru?" Mizuki asked in surprise, sticking her head back in the doorway.

"Sit," Haru commanded, pointing to a chair beside the desk, then trying to fix her mused hair. Mizuki meekly sat down.

"So how are you?" Haru asked cheerfully, as if it were completely normal for her to be in the nurses office at an all-boy's high school, snogging the school nurse. She sat down in Hokuto's chair.

"Out," he growled at her. Mizuki looked on in stunned silence at the surreal scene before her, as Haru refused to budge. Certain he would have to use extreme measures Umeda began to tickle her sides. She help out for as long as she could (which wasn't very long as it turned out) before finally breaking out into laughter and giving up his chair. She started to move to grab herself a chair when he grabbed her hand and pulled her into his lap as he sat down. She squeaked and he chuckled. Mizuki continued to watch this play out with a dazed look on her face.

"Did I miss something?" she finally asked, wondering if she was dreaming.

"Oh!" Realization hit Haru, "Rio didn't tell you?" Mizuki shook her head dumbly. "We're together now," Haru explained, pointing between Umeda and herself.

"When did this happen?" Mizuki asked. Haru looked at Umeda, who shrugged.

"Less than a week ago," she replied. She looked over at the calender hanging above Umeda's computer. "Can you believe we graduate in only a couple more months?" she asked Ashiya.

"Yeah, I still really can't believe it. What are you going to do when you graduate?" she questioned Haru.

"I don't know, probably go to university or something like that. What about you?" she in turn asked Mizuki. She looked incredibly sad for a moment.

"I may go back to America," she muttered, looking down at her hands.

"What?" Haru cried, "Why?"

"There is really no reason for me to stay in Japan after I graduate," she replied.

"Perhaps you should talk to Sano before you make and final decisions, and tell him the whole truth," Umeda advised, "you may as well, seeing that if you do decide to leave you will never get to tell him again."

"Right," Mizuki muttered, looking determined, "I'll tell him everything before graduation."

"Go get 'em girl!" Haru cheered. Mizuki grinned.

"I'll see you guys later, I have homework I need to finish," said, nearly skipping out the door.

"She has too much energy," Haru sighed leaning back into Hokuto's embrace. He wrapped his arms tightly around her.

"What are you doing tonight?" he asked quietly. Haru smiled.

"I'll call Rio when I get home," she whispered back.

"Good. Now get out of here. I still do have work to finish," he told her. She stood up and walked out the door. Turning back she leaned on the door frame.

"I'll see you later then," she said.

"It's a date," confirmed Hokuto.

Haru waited as the phone she held to her ear rang once, twice, three times before someone finally picked it up.

"Hello?" came the voice from the other end of the phone.

"Hey! Rio, could you do me a huge, ginormous, favor?" Haru asked excitedly. Rio groaned, already knowing where this was headed.

"You want me to cover for you again, don't you?" she asked.

"If you would be so kind," Haru replied with a grin, already knowing that Rio was going to say yes.

"Fine," she relented, "but if you two ever get caught,m do not, I repeat, do not ever mention my name."

"Thanks Rio! You rock!" Haru squealed happily.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'll see you tomorrow," Rio grumbled.

"Kay! Bye," Haru replied. She hung up the phone and bounced down the hall to find her mom.

"I see you managed to persuade Rio into covering for you," Umeda commented upon her arrival at his doorstep.

"Of course," she bragged, "Who could disagree with this face?" She pointed to her smiling face with both of her hands.

"Depends on what you want," he whispered, letting her into the house. She dropped her bag on the kitchen table and let herself into the fridge. She grabbed the jug of filtered water and poured herself a glass.

"Brr... it's cold out there," she complained.

"I would imagine so, since it's still January," he commented with amusement. He hung his coat up in the closet by the door and made his way to the bedroom, knowing Haru would follow when she was ready.

*****lemons & limes, lemons & limes!*****

"So are you really not sure what you're doing after you graduate?" Hokuto asked her much later as they laid in bed, Haru snuggled in his arms.

"No, I'm not," she replied, her nose settled into the crook of his neck. She breathed in his seductive scent.

"You plan on going to collage though? Are you planning on continuing to live with your parents?" he asked.

"I do have a couple ideas of courses I may look into, and I guess I haven't really though about whether I wanted to move or not," she replied.

"If you do want to move out from there, you are more than welcome to stay here with me," he offered.

"Is that a promise?" she asked, looking up at his face.

"Hmmm?"

"That I can stay here with you, that is," she clarified.

"Of course," he growled, kissing her passionately.

"Well then, of course I want to be with you silly!" she replied slightly short of breath, "as soon as I graduate, I'll tell my family about you. They probably wont approve, but I don't care. And it's not like that can forbid me from leaving. I'm legally an adult, I can go where I please."

"Only 2 more months," Hokuto breathed.

"It's so far away!" Haru sighed dramatically.

"Oh shoosh, deal with it," he replied, kissing her again to silence her.

***** insert mental lime here *****

The next two months crawled by for Haru. With all of her exams coming up, she had to spend all of her spare timed studying and didn't have much time to spend with Hokuto. Which only made her work even harder so that she could get the best grades, and get on her parents good side for when she told them her plans for after graduation.

Finally after her exams were done and there was only a couple days left to school, Haru sat her parents down. They looked at her in worry as she sat them down at the kitchen table.

"Mom, Dad, I have something to tell you," she began, looking at them nervously, fidgeting with the hem of her baggy blue hoodie.

"Oh god, you're not pregnant are you?" her mother burst out. Haru looked at her in horror.

"Mom! NO! Of course not!" she cried, "How on earth did you come to that conclusion?" Her mother looked relieved at her response and relaxed back into her chair.

"I'm sorry honey, you've just been really closed off these last couple months, and we've been worried about how much time you are spending away from home. And we know that your friend Rio has been covering for you, when you go off god knows where," her mother continued. The color drained from Haru's face.

"Oh."

"Yes, oh. So what is this all about?" her father asked.

"Well, I guess it isn't too much of a surprise to you then for me to say that I've met someone," Haru told them. Haru noticed a dark look come across her father's face. "And I was thinking that he could come over tomorrow night for dinner so that you could all meet him."

"Why haven't we heard of this boy before?" her father asked her. Here Haru looked hesitant.

"Well, I knew you guys wouldn't exactly approve of me having a relationship right now. But I have been keeping my grades up, and I aced all of my final exams, so I was hoping to introduce you to him. And please, please be nice to him," she nearly begged, "Just take a few minutes to get to know him before you start judging him." Her father opened his mouth as if to protest, but her mother cut him off.

"Dinner sounds like a wonderful idea!" she exclaimed, standing back up, "Thank you for telling us Haru. It would be a pleasure to meet the boy who caught your eye."

Carefully schooling her face Haru internally snorted, _'It will be interesting to see what they have to say about this "boy".'_ "Of course mom, I'll let him know tomorrow to come over. Oh, and his name is Umeda Hokuto."

As the last bell of the day rang, Haru nearly jumped out of her seat and bolted out the door. She hurriedly made her way to Osaka High, grinning widely when she reached the gate. Quickly sneaking inside she jogged the rest of the way to Umeda's office. Making sure that no one was around, she quickly ran through the door and launched herself at Hokuto.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully with a slight giggle. Hokuto looked at her in surprise and was able to catch her at the last second, preventing her from bashing her head on the desk.

"Why hello to you too," he grunted, rearranging her in his lap, "and what's with the enthusiastic hello?"

"I finally told my parent about us," she said, breathless. He raised his eyebrow at her.

"Good news I'm guessing?"

"Well, kinda," she replied, "You're coming over for dinner tonight to meet them. And they promised to be nice and give you a chance."

"Really? Well then, I guess I should head home to get ready," he finally said, after a moment of shocked silence.

"We have lots of time," she told him, "My dad doesn't get home till about 9, so we eat pretty late."

"Then I suggest we head back to my place for some well deserved time to ourselves," he whispered into her ear, causing her to giggle, "After all, I haven't seen you in nearly two weeks." She gave him an apologetic look.

"Sorry, but at least my exams are done now, and there is only one more day of school left. I still can't believe it," she said truthfully.

"Hm, yes, well you had better get used to the fact quickly," he replied, "Now get going. I'll meet you at my place in about half an hour."

"Kay," she grinned, kissing him on the nose, and sneaking back out the door.

"Are you sure about this?" Umeda asked Haru as she nervously played with the hem of her skirt.

"Yes," she replied, "may as well get this over with now. I would rather they meet you on their own terms, other than out of the blue when I try moving." Hokuto grabbed her hand and kissed the top of her head. Haru let of her breath and opened the door to her home.

"We're here," she called out.

"In the kitchen, honey," her mom called back. After taking off their shoes and coats, they made there way into the kitchen where Mrs. Kuro was busy making dinner.

"Dad's not home yet?" Haru asked, looking at the clock hanging on the wall and noting that it was already ten past nine.

"He said he would be running late today and that he would be home around nine-thirty," was her reply. She turned around and finally noticed Hokuto. "Oh!" she exclaimed in surprise, "You must be Umeda Hokuto. It's nice to finally meet you. By the way, do you have any relation to Umeda Rio?" Umeda bowed slightly and lightly kissing the back of her hand.

"Likewise," he said with a smile, "Yes, I am her older brother." Haru's mother looked at him in surprise for a moment.

"Quite the charmer, I see," she said slightly flustered. Haru grinned at her mom.

"He's definitely that," she chuckled. Mrs. Kuro straightened and looked Umeda up and down.

"My daughter didn't mention she was seeing someone older," she commented.

"Mm, ya, well, I'll let you learn _allll_ about him at dinner," Haru said, "for now, I'm going to show him around. Just holler if you need any thing." She grabbed Hokuto by the hand and led him to the next room, the computer room, where not surprisingly, Yusuke sat in front of the bright computer screen.

"Workin on anything worth my time listening to?" Haru asked him with their age old greeting.

"Not unless your interests have suddenly changed," he replied with a grin turning around in his seat.

"You!" Umeda and Yusuke said at the same time in surprise. Haru looked between them in confusion.

"You two know each other?" she asked in surprise.

"We went to Osaka High together," Yusuke looked over to her. He turned back to Hokuto, "but I thought you were gay."

"Things change," Umeda replied, moving his arm around Haru's waist. Yusuke raised his eyebrows and looked pointedly at Haru. She saw the look on his face, immediately flushed, and coughed.

"Well, why don't we go check out the rest of the house shall we," she said, leading him away. She led Umeda upstairs to where Yue and Akira were working on yet another puzzle. Five thousand pieces this time she noticed.

"Hey," she greeted them. Surprisingly they were not in their usual deep concentration and responded to her hello.

"Hi!" they said in unison, "You must -" "- be Umeda Hokuto." Yue started and Akira finished.

"Hello," he said politely. Haru introduced them and moved onto the next room when it was clear they wanted nothing more that to engross themselves with the challenging puzzle.

"Well, here we are, this is my room," she said, opening the door. As soon as they entered the room Hokuto swept her up into his arms and kissed her soundly.

"You have a nice family," he muttered, "from what I've gathered, anyway."

"Wait till you meet my dad," she said with a grin. He chuckled into her hair, still holding her in his arms.

"Ah, the over-protective parent?" he asked.

"Most definitely," she answered distracted by what he was currently doing to her neck, "What are you? A vampire?"

"If you want me to be," he replied, biting in her direction, and sending a very familiar shiver down her back. She giggled and brushing her lips against his again, which is how Akira found them.

"Not in this house, please!" he said in horror from her doorway, "I'm afraid my sanity will not be able to cope with having my baby sister snogging some guy in her room!" Haru blushed and deep red and his her face in Umeda's shirt. "Anyway," Akira continued, "supper's ready."

"Lead the way," Hokuto said, letting go of Haru and following after Akira. Walking back downstairs, Haru noticed her father taking his shoes off at the door. Umeda continued into the kitchen and she stopped to greet her father.

"Hey Dad, how's it going?" she asked. He set his shoes on the rack and they started towards the kitchen.

"Not bad. Some traffic, but I've seen worse," he replied. They entered the kitchen where the boys, including Umeda were setting the table. Her dad looked at Hokuto suspiciously, already making mental notes.

_'Oh god,'_ Haru thought, noticing his sudden behavior, _'This is going to be fun...'_ They all crowed around the small table, Yue beside Akira, with their mom beside him and their father beside her. Umeda sat between Haru and Yusuke, who sat beside Yue. The food was passed around and they all began to eat in an awkward silence. Finally Mr. Kuro cleared his throat.

"So, Umeda, is it? What do you do for a living? You don't seem to be young enough to be a high school student," he asked. Hokuto shot Haru a look that clearly said, _'You didn't tell them anything?'_

_'What was I supposed to tell them?'_ her look replied.

_'Fair enough,' _his looked seemed to say back. He looked back at the expectant father.

"I'm a nurse," he answered the question, if only in part.

"Oh! I see," her father said, sounding impressed despite himself.

"We were actually in the same class in school," Yusuke piped up.

_'Uh oh,'_ Haru thought, grabbing Hokuto's hand under the table.

_'I second that,'_ he thought back, giving her hand a squeeze.

"So how old are you then?" her father asked the dreaded question.

"Twenty-eight," Umeda answered. Haru's mother raised her eyebrows and her dad scowled.

"A little old for her, aren't you?" he continued the questioning.

"Could be worse," Hokuto replied with a shrug.

"Hmm..." Mr. Kuro replied, continuing eating. Haru breathed a sigh of relief.

"So how long have you known my daughter?" he suddenly asked.

"I've known Hokuto for most of the school year, but we just started going out a short while ago," Haru answered his question. Her mother frowned slightly and gave Haru a quizzical look, expecting the full story later.

"Not too long then," her father stated.

_'Not too long? Why I otta! The last few months have be pure hell! What with schoolwork, and trying to hide our relationship from everyone!'_ Haru internally seethed, careful not to let her emotions show on her face.

_'Calm down,'_ Umeda tried to telepathically send to her, seeing the slight twitch at the corner of her eye. He started rubbing his thumb over her back of her hand, hoping it would help her remain in control.

The rest of dinner went by without any major difficulties and Hokuto even helped Mrs. Kuro and Haru clean up in the kitchen after dinner.

"Thank you, dear. None of the other boys in this house would even suggest helping out after supper," she thanked him.

"It's nothing," he replied, "I'm happy to be helpful." Haru rolled her eyes.

_'What a load of bull. You only do stuff like this when you know you have too,'_ she chuckled silently. Soon though, once all the dishes had been cleaned, Umeda had to depart, since he had work early the next day, and Haru had school, even though it was the last day. She walked with him to the door.

"That went better than I thought it would," she commented as he put on his shoes.

"I have to admit that I was slightly nervous for there for a little while, myself. I wasn't sure if he planned on pulling that steak knife on me at some point during the meal," he said, standing up. "Are you coming by the school tomorrow?" Haru sadly shook her head.

"No. Unfortunately I need to go to school, being the last day and all. Even though I don't think they would blow the whistle on me I don't want to chance it," she told him, "but I will see you after school."

"Till then," he said, kissing her softly on the lips, then walking out the door. Locking the door after him, Haru went to find her mother, knowing she wasn't getting out of telling her the whole story.

Finally explaining the whole situation, Haru looked up at her mother, who needless to say was in shock at the news her daughter had told her.

"Haru, I can't believe you would let yourself end up in a situation like this!" she scolded. Haru grimaced.

"Well it wasn't exactly planned, it just kinda happened," she tried to explain, waving her hands ambiguously in the air.

"If this gets out to anyone, it means trouble for both of you."

"I know! That's why I waited this long to tell you guys. I didn't want to chance him losing his job."

"Well what are you planning on doing now?" her mother asked, worry in her voice.

"I want to finally be able to be open about our relationship, and after tomorrow I finally will be able to," she replied, "I also want to move in with him once I'm finished with school. He's already offered, and this is something I really, really want to do."

"You're father isn't going to be very happy about this when he finds out," her mother warned.

"That's why I wasn't planning on telling him until I'm moved," she answered, "I realize he's going to be upset with me for a while, and honestly, I don't want to be around her when he is."

"I understand, honey," her mom replied, hugging her.

"You do?" Haru asked incredulously. Her mother grinned, "believe it or not, I was young once too. I do understand the draw of young love." Haru blushed at the last part.

"Well, I don't know if it's love, but I do want to be with him," she said, "Thank you for listening and understanding, Mom."

"Of course," her mother replied, tears in her eyes, "just know that you always have a place here, and can come back any time." Haru hugged her mother once again, before excusing herself for the night.

Waking early for once, Haru took her time getting ready for school. Eating breakfast, she was surprised by a knock on the door. With a sigh she stood from the kitchen table and went to open the door.

"Hi, wow, you're up early," Rio commented in her cheerful voice, "ready for school?" Haru rolled her eyes and sighed again.

"No, let me get my bag," she said, motioning Rio to follow her into the house.

"So how bad was last night?" Rio asked her as she grabbed her bookbag off the back of the chair she was sitting on.

"Meh. Could have been better, could have been **a lot** worse," was her answer. "Hokuto was surprisingly well mannered. He even helped with the dishes afterward."

Rio laughed, "I've heard he can be when he wants to." They left the house and began the walk to school.

"So what do you think of all this?" Haru suddenly asked. Rio cocked her had to the side.

"What do you mean?" she pondered.

"You know, the fact that I'm dating your brother," Haru clarified.

"I think it's good that he's found someone who will make him happy," Rio replied slowly, "and I'm glad you're happy as well. Though I probably would have been happier if you hadn't sprung that on me over the phone.

"Ehehehe, sorry," Haru apologies, blushing.

*****flashback*****

Haru sat in her first period class, before the bell with a happy dazed look on her face and a goofy grin tugging at the corner of her mouth. She sat back in her desk chair, gazing into the distance, oblivious to the world.

"What's with her today?" one girl whispered to another. The other shrugged in response. Haru remained in her daydream bliss until the lunch bell rang and Rio ambushed her on the roof.

"Why the hell were you at his house last night? And how could you just phone me and expect me to cover for you? Do you have any idea how crazy stupid you are?" Rio bombarded her with questions.

"One," she answered, holding up her index finger, "we were attacked, and I was injured, I didn't expect to end up there. TWO-" she said quickly so Rio couldn't interrupt, "I wasn't expecting to phone you until about 2 minutes before I did, and three, I realize I'm crazy and quite stupid and yesterday probably was not the best idea, but it's kinda too late to go back and change it."

"You were injured?" Rio asked in worry. Haru grimaced.

"Ya, we were attacked my a would-be mugger with a knife, but Hokuto set him right!" Haru replied, trying to lighten the mood.

"What are you? A damsel in distress? Where were you hurt?" Rio questioned. Haru rolled up her sleeve with a sigh to show Rio the bandage.

"Ouch!" she flinched, imagining the pain it probably caused Haru. Haru grinned.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," she said.

"So..." Rio whispered awkwardly, she didn't know why she was whispering, but it felt right for the topic she was starting. Haru looked at her in patient silence, waiting with a grin for her to finish her question.

"So then does this mean..." she started again, only to drift off again before she could finish the question. Finally after a few more tries, Haru got fed up with the waiting.

"'So does this mean..' What are you getting at? Are you asking if Hokuto and I had sex?" Haru asked her bluntly. Rio flushed.

"You certainly don't beat around the bush," Rio commented, trying not to show her discomfort.

"No," Haru replied, "why would I? When do I ever?" Rio opened her mouth, but seemingly could not come up with a comeback.

"The answer to your question it obvious, I would think," Haru said, bringing their conversation back to the original topic, "Yes, we did," she said sweetly to Rio, laughing internally at her discomfort. "Is there anything else you wish to know about my personal life?" Rio shook her head. "Good."

"But, Brother..." she said, "he's gay!"

"Not anymore," Haru replied, a huge grin across her face.

**Chapter 7 End – Left on the Wrong Side of Sexuality – Complete**

Author's Note: Well that's it boys and girls (although mostly girls, I'm betting), but fear not! I have many side stories I eventually intend to put down on paper, and if you have any ideas for situations for these characters to get into, feel free to leave a awesome little review (all you have to do is click on the little button in the left-hand bottom corner, I'm sure you can find it! :D) telling me anything you would like to see happen, and who knows, maybe I'll add it to the story. ;) But for now, farewell. Till next time.


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